Chargers drop RVC game

Thursday

May 9, 2013 at 12:18 AMMay 9, 2013 at 12:22 AM

Tri-Point loses on Senior Day

Erich Murphy

A shrug of the shoulders and an almost-apologetic look on his face meant that Carl Krause’s Tri-Point softball team came up on the short end of the final score Wednesday afternoon. That the Chargers did, falling 19-5 to Gardner-South Wilmington in a River Valley Conference contest. “Ugly, just ugly,” Krause said after the thumping. It got ugly quickly as the Panthers scored seven runs in the first inning. The first 10 GSW batters each reached base with the first out coming when catcher Sabrina Cox picked off Sophie Barma at second base. The second out was a fielder’s choice off the bat of Emily Foley, who was batting for the second time in the inning, and the third out was a pitcher-to-first putout off a bunt attempt. It was not Tiera Turner’s day in the circle. She walked four batters in the first inning and gave up five base hits. Turner was running into trouble in the second before being lifted with one out. After getting a groundout to open the frame, Turner yielded a single, double and triple as the GSW lead grew to 9-0. Krause had seen enough and brought on sophomore Morgan Hindman, who walked the first batter she faced. Things were going so bad for the Chargers that the first person Hindman struck out still managed to reach safely when the ball got away from Cox behind the plate. “That’s the story of our season. We can’t get it together,” Krause said. “We had a pitcher off for over a month, put the load on the other one. The other one is just worn out.” Tri-Point did show some life in the second and third innings. Turner drew a walk to lead off the second and Jennifer Wood followed with a free pass. Although Turner was tagged out trying to get back to third on a Hindman grounder, Wood and Hindman eventually scored in the inning. Wood crossed the plate after Cox drew a bases-loaded walk and Hindman scored on a wild pitch. Hindman was able to shut the Panthers down in the third and the Chargers tacked on three more runs in their turn at bat. Dayna Moritz led off the frame by reaching on an error and Kenzie Krause legged out a double. Turner reached on an error that scored Moritz and Wood reached on a single off the pitcher’s glove to plate Krause. Turner came home on a groundout to slice the deficit to 11-5. The good fortune did not last long. Hindman walked the first three batters of the fourth inning and then yielded a single and a double. When it was all over, the Panthers had sent 12 batters to the plate and scored eight times. Foley, who came in for GSW starter Abbie Horrie, found a groove by getting the final six Tri-Point batters to end the game. The Chargers (6-13) managed just two hits — Krause’s double and Wood’s single. “Our bats are solid, it’s just that some days they’re here and some days they’re not,” Coach Krause said. “When they’re here, we’re good. We thought if we can give up six runs we can score eight and win, but you can’t give up what we did today.” One thing that the Chargers didn’t do was strike out looking. Krause had told his team after the first inning that he wanted them swinging and didn’t want to see a called third strike. He didn’t. The three seniors for the Chargers — Sabrina Cox, Emily Jehle and Kenzie Krause — were recognized before the game.